Teaching literature can be a pretty tricky task. What do you do when you are in a classroom and you are supposed to teach a text like Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird? Both of these books have been banned from teaching in certain areas of the country because people might be offended by the texts. This issue of multiculturalism is a very important topic to touch on. In an article by Daniel D. Hade, he states that "Reading is inherently social and is dominated by culture. And the meanings we hold about race, class, and gender mediate how we interpret a text," (Reading Multiculturally 235). This is the way we read, but this is not how it is necessary to read. Hade continues his article by mentioning that we are taught to understand certain topics like race, class, and gender from an early age by the way that we were taught to read. In some of the "children's" books these issues are approached in a skewed way that children may or may not understand, but it instills the fact that they are looking at multiculturism from a tourist perspective. Hade explains a teaching style that he has as, "exposing injustices". When peering at the values that students may accomodate while reading some challenged texts (challenged by the censoring nation) Hade has shown this view, "...we do not want to force meaning upon students like a medicine, but we do want them to think about their assumtions about raace, class, and gender, about the assumtions texts seem to suggest, and how they use these assumtions to interpret text," (238). We must engage so that they can learn to interpret texts.
An intersting experiment took place by a third grade english teacher in the late 1960's. It was an experiment with a classroom of white students who all seemed to know racial biasts but were never really subjected to it themselves. The experiment had the students learn to feel discriminated against. It turned the students against one another based on the color of their eyes. This experiment helped the students to understand how this sort of discrimination felt like and they had that valuable experience to be able to use it in their later days with understanding literary texts.
I feel that books such as Huck Finn and To Kill a Mocking Bird are important texts to have in a classroom. If one politically incorrect thing is in a book...should it be banned forever? I don't think so...what about you?
A book should not be banned from a school because it does not contain "appropriate language". There is a reason that these are issues that authors choose to write about. These authors are writing about it to make other aware of discrimination and not let the silence continue or to tell a story in realistic terms. I see nothing wrong with To Kill a Mockingbird or Huck Finn being in the curriculum. When doing an observation recently, I witnessed a class reading Huck Fin. The teacher adapted to the language by printing out a modern text and sort of erasing when the "N word" was used. It was still in the text, but students were given the option if they wanted to read the word out loud. She made it aware though that these phrases are part of Huck's character. I think that the students enjoyed reading Huck Fin in class along with their teacher.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Heather said. Yesterday in class the question of whether or not to use the "N" word in certain texts was brought up. I would never allow my students to use that word or any other inappropriate word in my classroom in their normal conversation, but I think in regards to the text that is censoring the author. I completely understand why people would think it's offensive, I mean it is a very inappropriate, offensive term. However, that is how the text was written, I don't think Harper Lee would look at her novel now and take those terms out. I think the use of those terms will only aid the students in examining the affects that society has on race, class, and gender. Sometimes the most offensive things have to biggest affect. I just wouldn't ignore the use of the term in Huck Finn or To Kill A Mockingbird. I think I would try to help my students understand the time period it takes place and the society in which the characters lived in. I would also, like Heather's teacher did, give the option to not say it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, absolutely.
ReplyDeleteA book that is up for review to be banned is all the more necessary to study in the classroom.
That is what the classroom should be doing, right? Getting students to think critically about the world around them. (As opposed to "erasing" - pretending things have not happened.)
You all brought up good points and questions. On the n word I think it should not be ignored because it does represent slang of the period. It also can be used to be an effective teaching method to relate student's experiences with slang to teach why it is not acceptable today, but bigger than that, why slang toward anyone is hurtful and wrong. I like Emily's quote about assumptions (from Hade) because that is exactly what we should be doing- challenging them and developing critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that To kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn should be banned because of the language. The author, if anything, was a good writer because they wrote how people were talking back then. If the author did not have those words, then it would not be realistic. Also, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee wrote about culural diversity and how even though Tom Robinson is black, he is the mockingbird and it is a sin to kill him because he is innocent. I can understand being a little upset, but there are a lot of good lessons in the book, that I can't see how it should not be taught. It was one of the most memorable books I read in high school and I think every student should experience it at some point.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an instance where "politcal correctness" is helping more than hindering. While the language in Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird is obviously not PC in the present, we are not teaching these books to model behavior for students. We are teaching them to show what everyday life was like and the attitudes that presided at this point in history. I'm sorry but it seems that anyone who thinks these books should be banned clearly does not understand this.
ReplyDeleteJust because this may be an uncomfortable topic for some people doesn't mean it is not important to learn about. Knowing one's past and heritage, even the parts we may be ashamed of and don't want to repeat, is an integral part of understanding one's identity and place in the world.